Method and apparatus for managing disc defect using temporary DFL and temporary DDS including drive and disc information, and disc with temporary DFL and temporary DDS

ABSTRACT

A write once disc includes a defect management area that is present in at least one of a lead-in area and a lead-out area; a temporary defect management area that is present in at least one of the lead-in area and the lead-out area; and a drive &amp; disc information area that is present in at least one of the lead-in area and the lead-out area. Information regarding the locations of temporary defect information and temporary defect management information is recorded in the drive &amp; disc information area, the temporary defect information and temporary defect management information, which includes drive &amp; disc information, are recorded in the temporary defect management area, and temporary defect information and temporary defect management information, which are lastly recorded in the temporary defect management area, are recorded in the defect management area for disc finalization.

This application is a continuation of application Ser. No. 11/430,037filed on May 9, 2006, now U.S. Pat. No. 7,460,454, which is acontinuation of application Ser. No. 11/221,771 filed on Sep. 9, 2005,now U.S. Pat. No. 7,391,689, which is a continuation of application Ser.No. 10/786,001 filed on Feb. 26, 2004, now U.S. Pat. No. 7,385,889,which claims the benefit of Korean Patent Application No. 2003-12953filed on Mar. 3, 2003, in the Korean Intellectual Property Office,Korean Patent Application No. 2003-16495 filed on Mar. 17, 2003, in theKorean Intellectual Property Office, and Korean Patent Application No.2004-5640 filed on Jan. 29, 2004, in the Korean Intellectual PropertyOffice, the disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference intheir entirety.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to disc defect management, and moreparticularly, to a disc with a temporary defect management area in whichdrive & disc information is recorded, and a disc defect managementmethod and apparatus therefor.

2. Description of the Related Art

Disc defect management is the process of rewriting data stored in a userdata area of a disc in which a defect exists to a new portion of thedisc's data area, thereby compensating for data loss otherwise caused bythe defect. In general, disc defect management is performed using alinear replacement method or a slipping replacement method. In thelinear replacement method, a user data area in which a defect exists isreplaced with a spare data area having no defects. In the slippingreplacement method, a user data area with the defect is slipped and thenext user data area having no defects is used.

Both linear replacement and slipping replacement methods are, however,applicable only to discs such as a DVD-RAM/RW, on which data can berepeatedly recorded and recording can be performed using a random accessmethod. In other words, the conventional linear and slipping replacementmethods cannot be applied to write once discs on which recording isallowed only once. Specifically, the presence of defects in a disc isgenerally detected by recording data on the disc and confirming whetherthe data has been recorded correctly on the disc. However, once the datais recorded on a write once disc, it is impossible to overwrite new dataand manage defects therein.

After the development of write once discs Compact Disc (CD)-R andDigital Versatile Disc (DVD)-R, a high-density write once disc with arecording capacity of several dozen GBs has been introduced. This typeof disc can be used as a backup disc since it is not expensive andallows random access that enables fast reading operations. However, discdefect management is not available for write once discs. Therefore, abackup operation may be discontinued when a defective area (i.e., anarea where a defect exists) is detected during the backup operation.Further, the backup operation is performed when a system is notfrequently used (e.g., at night) when a system manager does not operatethe system. In this case, it is more likely that the backup operationwill be discontinued because a defective area of a write once disc isdetected.

Meanwhile, when additional data will not be recorded on a recordabledisc (i.e., when only data reproduction will be allowed), write protectinformation is recorded on the disc to prevent the data recorded on thedisc from being mistakenly erased. However, once the write protectinformation is recorded, recording is not further allowed, and, thus,possible disc defects cannot be managed. That is, since recording is notallowed in a data area of the disc after recording of the write protectinformation, disc defect management also cannot be performed.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

An aspect of the present invention provides a write once disc, and adisc defect management method and apparatus therefor.

An aspect of the present invention also provides a write once disc and adisc defect management method and apparatus that can manage disc defectseven when a disc defect is detected during a recording operation,allowing the recording operation to be performed without interruption.

An aspect of the present invention also provides a disc on whichalready-recorded write protect information can be changed, and a discdefect management method and apparatus therefor.

An aspect of the present invention also provides a disc on which discdefect management is allowed even after recording of write protectinformation, and a disc defect management method and apparatus therefor.

An aspect of the present invention also provides a disc, and a discdefect management method and apparatus that can increase a reliabilityof data stored in a disc.

Additional aspects and/or advantages of the invention will be set forthin part in the description which follows and, in part, will be obviousfrom the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention.

According to an aspect of the present invention, a write once discincludes a single record layer having, sequentially, a lead-in area, adata area, and a lead-out area, a defect management area in at least oneof the lead-in area and the lead-out area, a temporary defect managementarea in at least one of the lead-in area and the lead-out area, and adrive & disc information area in at least one of the lead-in area andthe lead-out area, where information regarding locations of temporarydefect information and temporary defect management information isrecorded in the drive & disc information area, the temporary defectinformation and temporary defect management information, which includesdrive & disc information, are recorded in the temporary defectmanagement area, and temporary defect information and temporary defectmanagement information, which are last recorded in the temporary defectmanagement area, are recorded in the defect management area duringfinalization of the disc.

According to another aspect of the present invention, a write once dischas a first record layer having, sequentially, a lead-in area, a dataarea, and a lead-out area, a second record layer having, sequentially,an outer area, a data area, and a lead-out area, a defect managementarea in at least one of the lead-in area, the lead-out area, and theouter area; a temporary defect management area in at least one of thelead-in area, the lead-out area, and the outer area; and a drive & discinformation area in at least one of the lead-in area, the lead-out area,and the outer area, where temporary defect information and temporarydefect management information, which includes drive & disc information,are recorded in the temporary defect management area, temporary defectinformation and temporary defect management information, which are lastrecorded in the temporary defect management area, are recorded in thedefect management area, for disc finalization, and information regardingthe locations of the temporary defect information and temporary defectmanagement information is recorded in the drive & disc information area.

According to an aspect of the invention, write protect information isfurther recorded in the drive & disc information area and recorded forevery recording operation.

According to an aspect of the invention, the drive & disc informationincludes at least one of the write protect information and test locationinformation.

According to yet another aspect of the present invention, a method ofmanaging disc defects includes recording information regarding a defectin data, which is recorded in a data area of a disc according to an ithrecording operation, as ith temporary defect information several timesin a temporary defect management area of the disc; recording informationfor managing the ith temporary defect information as ith temporarydefect management information in the temporary defect management area;recording information regarding locations of the ith temporary defectinformation and the temporary defect management information in a drive &disc information area of the disc; repeating the recording the ithtemporary defect information, recording the ith temporary defectmanagement information, and the recording information regarding thelocations at least once while increasing an index i given to eachsubsequent recording operation, the temporary defect information, andthe temporary defect management information; and recording a lastrecorded temporary defect information and temporary defect managementinformation in a defect management area of the disc for discfinalization.

According to an aspect of the invention, the method further includesrecording write protect information in the drive & disc informationarea.

During the recording the first temporary defect management information,the ith temporary defect management information is recorded to includeat least one of test location information and the write protectinformation.

According to still another aspect of the present invention, a recordingand/or reproducing apparatus includes a recording/reading unit thatrecords data on or reads data from a disc; and a controller thatcontrols the recording/reading unit to record data in a data area of thedisc and information regarding a defect in the data recorded in the dataarea as temporary defect information in a temporary defect managementarea; to record management information for managing the temporary defectinformation as temporary defect management information in the temporarydefect management area, the management information further includingdrive & disc information; to record information regarding locations ofthe temporary defect information and the temporary defect managementinformation in a drive & disc information area of the disc; and torecord a last recorded temporary defect information and temporary defectmanagement information in a defect management area of the disc duringdisc finalization.

According to an aspect of the invention, the controller controls therecording/reading unit to further record write protect information inthe drive & disc information, controls the recording/reading unit torecord the temporary defect information and the temporary defectmanagement information for each recording operation, and controls therecording/reading unit to record the temporary defect managementinformation to include test location information and write the protectinformation for each recording operation.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The above and/or other aspects and advantages of the present inventionwill become more apparent and more readily appreciated by describing indetail embodiments thereof with reference to the accompanying drawingsin which:

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a recording and/or reproducing apparatusaccording to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIGS. 2A through 2D illustrate structures of a disc according toembodiments of the present invention;

FIG. 3A illustrates a data structure of the disc shown in FIGS. 2Athrough 2D according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3B illustrates a data structure of a disc with a drive & discinformation area, a temporary defect management area (TDMA), and defectmanagement areas (DMAs) as shown in FIG. 3A;

FIGS. 4A through 4D illustrate data structures of a TDMA where discdefect management has been performed, according to embodiments of thepresent invention;

FIGS. 5A and 5B illustrate data structures of a TDMA where disc defectmanagement is not performed, according to embodiments of the presentinvention;

FIGS. 6A and 6B illustrate data structures of temporary defectmanagement information TDDS #i according to embodiments of the presentinvention;

FIG. 7 illustrates a data structure of a temporary defect informationTDFL #i according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIGS. 8A and 8B illustrate data structures of a drive & disc informationarea according to embodiments of the present invention;

FIG. 9 illustrates diagrams for explaining recording of data in a userdata area A and a spare area B according to an embodiment of the presentinvention;

FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating an effective use of a data areaaccording to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIGS. 11A and 11B illustrate data structures of temporary defectinformation TDFL #0 and TDFL #1 according to an embodiment of thepresent invention;

FIG. 12 illustrates a data structure of information regarding defect #iaccording to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIGS. 13A and 13B shown a flowchart illustrating a disc defectmanagement method according to an embodiment of the present invention;and

FIGS. 14A and 14B show a flowchart illustrating a disc defect managementmethod according to another embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in agreater detail with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein likereference numerals refer to the like elements throughout. Theembodiments are described below in order to explain the presentinvention by referring to the figures.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a recording and/or reproducing apparatusaccording to an embodiment of the present invention. Referring to FIG.1, the recording and/or reproducing apparatus includes arecording/reading unit 1, a controller 2, and a memory 3. Therecording/reading unit 1 records data on a disc 100, which is aninformation storage medium according to an embodiment of the presentinvention the recording/reading unit 1 also reads back the data from thedisc 100 to verify the accuracy of the recorded data. The controller 2performs disc defect management according to an embodiment of thepresent invention and controls the recording/reading unit 1 to recordwrite protect information on the disc 100. In this embodiment, thecontroller 2 uses a verify-after-write method in which data is recordedon the disc 100 in predetermined units of data and the accuracy of therecorded data is verified to detect if an area of the disc 100 has adefect.

Specifically, the controller 2 records user data on the disc 100 inunits of recording operations, and verifies the recorded user data todetect an area of the disc 100 in which a defect exists. Thereafter, thecontroller 2 creates information that indicates a position of the areawith the defect, and stores the created information in the memory 3.When the stored information reaches a predetermined amount, thecontroller 2 records the stored information as temporary defectinformation on the disc 100. If a user will not perform the disc defectmanagement, the controller 2 records only the temporary defectmanagement information (which will be explained below) on the disc 100.

Generally, the recording operation is an operation unit determinedaccording to a user's intention or is a recording work to be performed.According to the shown embodiment, a recording operation indicates aprocess in which the disc 100 is loaded into the recording and/orreproducing apparatus, data is recorded on the disc 100, and the disc100 is taken out from the recording and/or reproducing apparatus. Duringthe recording operation, data is recorded and verified at least once: Ingeneral, the data is recorded and verified several times. Defectinformation, which is obtained using the verify-after-write method, istemporarily stored as the temporary defect information in the memory 3.However, it is understood that the recording operation can be otherwisedefined, and/or that the data does not need to be verified several timesin all aspects of the invention.

When a user presses the eject button (not shown) of the recording and/orreproducing apparatus in order to remove the disc 100 after recording ofdata or when a recording operation is otherwise to end, the controller 2expects a recording operation to be terminated. Next, the controller 2reads the information from the memory 3, provides the read informationto the recording/reading unit 1, and controls the recording/reading unit1 to record the read information on the disc 100. Further, as will beexplained later, information regarding the temporary defect informationand the temporary defect management information, and the write protectinformation are recorded in a drive & disc information area of the disc100.

When the recording of data is completed (i.e., additional data will notbe recorded on the disc 100 and the disc 100 needs to be finalized), thecontroller 2 controls the recording/reading unit 1 to rewrite therecorded temporary defect information and temporary defect managementinformation in a defect management area (DMA) of the disc 100 as defectmanagement information.

During reproduction, the controller 2 controls the recording/readingunit 1 to read information regarding a defect in the data recorded inthe data area, as temporary defect information from a temporary defectmanagement area (TDMA) of the disc 100. The controller 2 furthercontrols the recording/reading unit 1 to read management information formanaging the temporary defect information as temporary defect managementinformation from the TDMA of the disc 100. The read managementinformation includes drive & disc information. The controller 2 controlsthe recording/reading unit 1 to read information regarding locations ofthe temporary defect information and the temporary defect managementinformation from a disc & drive information area of the disc 100.Further, in the case that the disc 100 is finalized, the controller 2controls the recording/reading unit 1 to read a last recorded temporarydefect information and a last recorded temporary defect managementinformation from a defect management area (DMA) of the disc 100. Thecontroller 2 also controls the recording/reading unit 1 to read writeprotect information and test location information from the drive & discinformation.

FIGS. 2A through 2D illustrate structures of the disc 100 of FIG. 1according to embodiments of the present invention. FIG. 2A illustratesin detail a disc 100 having a record layer L0 (a single record layerdisc). The disc 100 includes a lead-in area, a data area, and a lead-outarea. The lead-in area is located in an inner part of the disc 100, andthe lead-out area is located in an outer part of the disc 100. The dataarea is present between the lead-in area and the lead-out area and isdivided into a user data area and a spare area. The user data area is anarea where user data is recorded. The spare area is a replacement areafor a user data area having a defect, and serves to compensate for aloss in the recording area due to the defect. That is, the spare area isused for the disc defect management according to an aspect of thepresent invention such that, when a defect exists in data recorded inthe user data area, the data is recorded again in the spare area.

A data structure of the disc 100 shown in FIG. 2B is the same as that ofthe disc 100 of FIG. 2A except that a data area includes two spareareas. Therefore, a description of each area shown in FIG. 2B will beomitted. In FIG. 2B, the spare areas are located at the sides of theuser data area. In the shown embodiment, the spare area between thelead-in area and the user data area will be referred to as an innerspare area, and the spare area between the user data area and thelead-out area will be referred to as an outer spare area. However, it isunderstood that other spare areas can be used and/or can be disposed inareas other than the inner and outer areas of the user data area.

FIG. 2C illustrates a disc 100 having first and second record layers L0and L1 (a double record layer disc). The first record layer L0 has alead-in area, a data area, and an outer area sequentially formed fromthe inner part of the first record layer L0 to the outer part. Also, thesecond record layer L1 has an outer area, a data area, and a lead-outarea sequentially formed from the outer part of the second record layerL1 to the inner part. Unlike the single record layer discs shown inFIGS. 2A and 2B, the lead-out area is present in the inner part of thedisc 100 of FIG. 2B. That is, the disc 100 of FIG. 2B has an oppositetrack path (OTP) in which data is recorded starting from the lead-inarea of the first record layer L0 toward its outer area and continuingfrom the outer area of the second record layer L1 to its lead-out area.A spare area is allotted to each of the record layers L0 and L1.

A data structure of the disc 100 shown in FIG. 2D is the same as that ofthe disc 100 of FIG. 2C, except that the first record layer L0 and thesecond record layer L1 each further include another spare area such thatthe disc 100 includes four spare areas. Therefore, a description of eachspare area will be omitted here. The spare areas are formed at the sidesof the user data areas of the first and second record layers L0 and L1.In this disclosure, the spare areas adjacent to an inner part of thedisc 100 will be referred to as inner spare areas and the spare areasadjacent to an outer part of the disc 100 will be referred to as outerspare areas. If necessary, a portion of the user data area may be usedas another spare area. The location and numbers of the spare area arenot limited to the above description.

FIG. 3A illustrates structures of the disc 100 of FIGS. 2A through 2D,according to an embodiment of the present invention. Referring to FIG.3A, if the disc 100 is a single record layer disc 100 shown in FIGS. 2Aand 2B, a drive & disc information area, a DMA, and a temporary DMA(TDMA) are present in at least one of the lead-in area and the lead-outarea of the disc 100. If the disc 100 is a double record layer disc 100shown in FIGS. 2C and 2D, the drive & disc information area, the DMA,and the TDMA are present in at least one of the lead-in area, thelead-out area, and the outer area, and preferably are in the lead-inarea and the lead-out area, which are located in the inner part of thedisc 100, respectively. However, it is understood that the drive & discinformation area can be otherwise located in other aspects of theinvention.

In the drive & disc information area, there are recorded informationregarding a drive used for a write and/or read operation, informationregarding a disc (e.g., whether the disc is a single record layer discor a double record layer disc), and information regarding a location ofa test area where recording conditions are tested. In particular, thedisc information specifies disc defect management according to an aspectof the present invention. For instance, the disc information may includelocation information regarding temporary defect information andtemporary defect management information, and the write protectinformation. However, it is understood that the drive & disc informationarea could include additional information related to the drive & discinformation.

In general, the DMA includes information relating to managing discdefects in the disc 100. Such information includes the structure of thedisc 100 for disc defect management, the recording position of defectinformation, whether defect management is performed or not, and theposition and size of a spare area. In the TDMA, information regardingdisc defects is recorded before disc finalization. The informationregarding disc defects includes the drive & disc information (i.e., theinformation regarding the location of the test area and the writeprotect information).

In general, when the disc 100 is loaded into a recording/readingapparatus such as that shown in FIG. 1, the apparatus reads data from alead-in area and a lead-out area of the disc 100 to determine how tomanage the disc 100 and record data on or read data from the disc 100.However, if the amount of data recorded in the lead-in area and/or thelead-out area increases, a longer time is spent on preparing therecording or reproducing of data after the loading of the disc 100. Tosolve this problem, an aspect of the present invention uses temporarydefect management information and temporary defect information that areto be recorded in the TDMA. The TDMA is allotted to the lead-in areaand/or the lead-out area of a disc, being separated from the DMA. Thatis, when additional data will not be recorded on the disc (i.e., discfinalization is required), only a last recorded defect information anddefect management information are recorded in the DMA, thus enabling therecording/reading apparatus to read only the last recorded defectmanagement information from the DMA. Accordingly, it is possible toaccelerate disc initialization. Further, since the defect managementinformation is recorded in a plurality of areas, the reliability ofinformation can be increased.

According to an aspect of the present invention, the defect managementinformation, the location information regarding the temporary defectinformation and the temporary defect management information, and thewrite protect information are recorded in the drive & disc informationarea. Accordingly, the recording/reading apparatus reads the locationinformation from the drive & disc information area, and can thereforeaccess the DMA more rapidly based on the read location information. Thatis, the disc defect management can be more efficiently performed basedon the location information.

Also, the drive & disc information (including location informationregarding the test area and the write protect information) is recordedin the temporary defect management information. Therefore, even if adisc drive does not access the drive & disc information area, thelocation information regarding the test area and the write protectinformation can be obtained from the temporary defect management area.Inclusion of the test location information into the temporary defectmanagement information enables quick finding of a pointer to the testlocation information.

In the shown embodiment, since disc defect management is performed usingthe linear replacement method, the temporary defect information includesinformation indicating a position of an area of the disc 100 having adefect and information indicating a position of an area of the disc 100that is replacement for the area having the defect. More preferably, thetemporary defect information further includes information indicatingwhether the defect occurs in a single defect blocks or continuous defectblocks. The temporary defect management information is used to managethe temporary defect information and includes information indicating theposition of the disc 100 where the temporary defect information isrecorded. More preferably, the temporary defect management informationfurther includes the location information regarding the test area andthe write protect information. Detailed data structures of the temporarydefect information and the temporary defect management information willbe explained below.

In the shown embodiment, the temporary defect information and temporarydefect management information are recorded every time when a recordingoperation ends. In the TDMA, therefore, information regarding a defect,which occurs in data recorded during recording operation #0, andinformation regarding a replacement area are recorded as temporarydefect information #0. Information regarding a defect, which occurs indata recorded during recording operation #1, and information regarding areplacement area are recorded as temporary defect information #1.Further, information for managing temporary defect information #0, #1, .. . is recorded as temporary defect management information #0, #1, . . .in the TDMA. When additional data cannot be recorded in the data area orwhen a user does not wish to record additional data therein (i.e., thedata needs to be finalized), the temporary defect information recordedin the temporary defect information area and the temporary defectmanagement information recorded in the temporary defect managementinformation area are rewritten to the DMA.

In the shown embodiment, all defect information contained in previouslyrecorded temporary defect information #0, #1, #2, . . . , #i-1 isfurther contained in temporary defect information #i. Thus, it is easyto finalize the disc 100 just by reading defect information contained ina last recorded temporary defect information #i and rewriting the readtemporary defect information #1 to the DMA. However, it is understoodthat the temporary defect information #i need not include all priordefect information in all aspects of the invention.

In the case of a high-density disc 100 with a recording capacity ofseveral dozens of GBs such as a Blu-Ray disc or an Advance Optical Disc(AOD), it is desirable that a cluster is allocated to an area in whichthe temporary defect management information #i is recorded and four toeight clusters are allocated to an area in which temporary defectinformation #i is recorded. This is because it is preferable to recordnew information in units of clusters to update information when aminimum physical unit of record is a cluster, although the amount oftemporary defect information #i is just several KBs. While not requiredin all aspects, a total amount of defects allowed in a disc ispreferably about 5% of the disc recording capacity. For instance, aboutfour to eight clusters are required to record temporary defectinformation #i, considering that information regarding a defect is about8 bytes long and the size of a cluster is 64 KBs. However, it isunderstand that additional percentages of disc recording capacity can beused according to need, and that the new information need not berecorded in clusters in all aspects of the invention.

The verify-after-write method can also be performed on the temporarydefect information #i and the temporary defect management information#i. When a defect is detected, information recorded in an area of thedisc 100 having a defect may be either recorded in a spare area usingthe linear replacement method, or recorded in an area adjacent to theTDMA using the slipping replacement method.

In the shown embodiment, the drive & disc information area and the TDMAare separate areas. However, it is understood that the areas may beformed as a single area. In the latter case, a part of the drive & discinformation (e.g., the location information regarding the test area andthe write protect information), which needs to be updated is updated andrecorded together with the temporary defect management information.

FIG. 3B illustrates a data structure of the disc 100 with a drive & discinformation area, a TDMA, and DMAs as shown in FIG. 3A. Referring toFIG. 3B, two DMAs, DMA 1 and DMA 2, are formed to increase therobustness of defect management information, the defect information, andthe write protect information. FIG. 3B also shows a temporary defectmanagement area TDMA, a test area Test in which recording conditions ofdata are measured, and a drive and disc area Drive and Disc informationin which the drive & disc information is recorded and which is locatedbeside a buffer area Buffer 2 beside the DMA DMA1. Buffer 1, Buffer 2,and Buffer 3 are areas acting as buffers that indicate borders of therespective areas. A disc 100 according to embodiments of the presentinvention may include a plurality of the drive & disc information areas.

FIGS. 4A through 4D illustrate data structures of a TDMA where discdefect management has been performed, according to embodiments of thepresent invention. Referring to FIG. 4A, the TDMA is logically dividedinto a temporary defect information area and a temporary defectmanagement information area. In the temporary defect information area,temporary defect information TDFL #0, TDFL #1, TDFL #2, . . . aresequentially recorded starting from a start of the area toward the end,such that the physical or logical addresses of the temporary defectinformation increase. The temporary defect information TDFL #0, TDFL #1,TDFL #2, . . . are repeatedly recorded several times to increase therobustness of information. In particular, FIG. 4A illustrates recordingthe temporary defect information TDFL #0 P times. In the temporarydefect management information area, the temporary defect managementinformation TDDS #0, TDDS #1, TDDS #2, . . . are sequentially recordedstarting from the start of the area. The temporary defect managementinformation TDDS #0, TDDS #1, and TDDS #2 correspond to the temporarydefect information TDFL #0, TDFL #1, and TDFL #2, respectively.

Referring to FIG. 4B, compared to FIG. 4A, the TDMA is also logicallydivided into a temporary defect information area and a temporary defectmanagement information area. However, the sequences of recordinginformation are not the same. More specifically, in the temporary defectinformation area, the temporary defect information TDFL #0, TDFL #1,TDFL #2, . . . are sequentially recorded starting from the end of thearea toward the start such that the physical or logical addresses of thetemporary defect information decrease. Similarly, the temporary defectinformation TDFL #0, TDFL #1, TDFL #2, . . . is repeatedly recordedseveral times to increase the robustness of information. In particular,FIG. 4B illustrates recording the temporary defect information TDFL #0 Ptimes. In the temporary defect management information area, temporarydefect management information TDDS #0, TDDS #1, TDDS #2, . . . aresequentially recorded starting from the end of the area. The temporarydefect management information TDDS #0, TDDS #1, and TDDS #2 correspondto the defect information TDFL #0, TDFL #1, and TDFL #2, respectively.

Referring to FIG. 4C, corresponding temporary defect information andtemporary defect management information are recorded as pairs ofinformation in the TDMA. More specifically, the temporary managementinformation TDMA #0, TDMA #1, . . . are sequentially recorded startingfrom the start of the TDMA such that the physical or logical addressesof the temporary management information increase. The temporarymanagement information TDMA #0 contains a pair of correspondingtemporary defect management TDDS #0 and temporary defect informationTDFL #0, and temporary management information TDMA #1 contains a pair ofcorresponding temporary defect management information TDDS #1 andtemporary defect information TDFL #1. The temporary defect informationTDFL #0, TDFL #1, TDFL #2, . . . are repeatedly recorded several timesto increase the robustness of information. In particular, FIG. 4Cillustrates recording the temporary defect information TDFL #0 P times.

Referring to FIG. 4D, compared to the TDMA of FIG. 4C, correspondingtemporary defect information and temporary defect management informationare recorded as pairs of information in a TDMA. However, the sequence ofrecording the information is not the same. More specifically, in theTDMA, the temporary management information TDMA #0, TDMA #1, . . . aresequentially recorded starting from the end of the TDMA such that thephysical or logical addresses of the temporary management informationdecrease. The temporary management information TDMA #0 contains a pairof corresponding temporary defect management information TDDS #0 andtemporary defect information TDFL #0, and the temporary managementinformation TDMA #1 contains a pair of corresponding temporary defectmanagement information TDDS #1 and temporary defect information TDFL #1.Similarly, the temporary defect information TDFL #0, TDFL #1, TDFL #2, .. . are repeatedly recorded several times to increase the robustness ofinformation. In particular, FIG. 4D illustrates recording of thetemporary defect information TDFL #0 P times.

FIGS. 5A and 5B illustrate data structures of a TDMA where disc defectmanagement is not performed, according to embodiments of the presentinvention. Referring to FIG. 5A, when a user decides not to perform discdefect management, the temporary defect management information isrecorded in the TDMA in recording operation units. More specifically,the temporary defect management information TDDS #0, TDDS #1, . . . arerecorded starting from the start of the TDMA such that the physical orlogical addresses of the temporary defect management informationincrease.

Referring to FIG. 5B, when the user decides not to perform disc defectmanagement, the temporary defect management information is recorded inthe TDMA in recording operation units. However, unlike in the FIG. 5A,the temporary defect management information starting from the TDDS #0,TDDS #1, . . . are recorded starting from the end of the TDMA such thatthe physical or logical addresses of the temporary defect managementinformation decrease.

FIGS. 6A and 6B illustrate data structures of temporary defectmanagement information TDDS #i. In detail, FIG. 6A illustrates a datastructure of temporary defect management information TDDS #i recorded ona single record layer disc 100 such as that shown in FIGS. 2A and 2B.The temporary defect management information TDDS #i contains anidentifier for temporary defect management information TDDS #i, andinformation regarding the position of corresponding temporary defectinformation TDFL #i. As previously explained with reference to FIGS. 4Athrough 4D, temporary defect information TDFL #i according to an aspectof the present invention is repeatedly recorded several times. Thus, theinformation regarding the position of temporary defect information TDFL#i includes pointers corresponding to temporary defect information TDFL#i, and each pointer is to the recording position of each temporarydefect information TDFL #i. Temporary defect management information TDDS#i shown in FIG. 5A includes P pointers to temporary defect informationTDFL #i recorded P times.

Also, the temporary defect management information TDDS #i recorded onthe single record layer disc 100 describes the address of user data,which is last recorded in a user data area of a record layer L0, and theaddress of the replacement area which is last recorded in a spare areaof the record layer L0. Accordingly, a user can easily utilize the disc100 just by referring to the last recorded user data area andreplacement area.

The temporary defect management information TDDS #i further includestest location information #i and write protect information #i.Accordingly, even if a disc drive does not access the drive & discinformation area or the disc defect management is not performed, it ispossible to directly access a testable area without detecting thetestable area while scanning the test area where recording conditionsare tested. Also, it is possible to avoid recording in an undesiredarea.

A reason for including the test location information into the temporarydefect management information will now be described in a greater detail.As described above, the temporary management information contains thetemporary defect management information and the temporary defectinformation, and further contains recording management information thatis not shown in the drawings. According to an aspect, the recordingmanagement information is a space bit map (SBM). The SBM indicateswhether data is recorded in an area of a recording medium on a recordingblock basis using bit values. The temporary management information isrecorded in the temporary defect management information area (TDMA).

For effective use of the TDMA, when updating of a portion of thetemporary management information is required, only the portion isupdated in the TDMA. When the temporary defect information needs to beupdated but the SBM does not need to be updated, only the temporarydefect information is updated in a next available area of the TDMA. Inthis case, the recording location of last recorded temporary defectinformation changes Thus, the temporary defect management informationneeds to be updated. Similarly, when updating of the SBM is required butthat of the temporary defect information is not required, only the SBMis updated in a next available area of the TDMA. In this case, theupdating of the temporary defect management information is alsorequired, since a recording location of a last recorded SBM changes.

As described above, the temporary defect management information mustalso be updated when updating only a portion of temporary managementinformation recorded in the TDMA since the temporary defect managementinformation must specify location information regarding the updatedportion. In other words, when disc 100 is loaded into a drive system, itis difficult for the drive system to detect last recorded temporarymanagement information. To solve this problem, location informationregarding respective information contained in the temporary managementinformation are included in the temporary defect management informationand the temporary defect management information is recorded at an end ofthe TDMA. Accordingly, the drive system can easily detect the lastrecorded temporary management information by reading the locationinformation regarding the last recorded temporary management informationfrom the temporary defect management information. In this regard, thetemporary defect management information is recorded sequentially in theTDMA.

The drive system is capable of distinguishing between an area containingdata and an area containing no data in the temporary defect managementinformation, and detecting a last recorded data block. It is possible todetermine whether an area of a disc contains data by reading a radiofrequency (RF) signal from the disc 100. Therefore, when the testlocation information is included into the temporary managementinformation, it is best to record the test location information in thetemporary defect management information.

The test location information is recorded in the temporary defectmanagement information because, when the disc 100 is loaded into thedrive system, the drive system reads temporary management informationlast recorded on the disc 100 by accessing a data block last recorded inthe TDMA, detecting the temporary defect management information from thedata block, and detecting the last recorded temporary managementinformation from the temporary defect management information. The drivesystem performs a write/read operation based on the last recordedtemporary defect management information. For this reason, the testlocation information is contained in last recorded temporary defectmanagement information TDDS #i that the disc drive must first detect inorder to record data on or read data from the disc 100, thereby allowingeasy detection of both the location information regarding temporarydefect information TDFL#i and the test location information at once.

Inclusion of the test location information in the temporary defectmanagement information TDDS#i allows the test location information to beeasily detected from the TDMA based on an address of the last recordedtemporary defect management information TDDS #i, regardless of whetheranother temporary management information is updated. If the testlocation information is recorded in an area other than the last recordedtemporary defect management information TDDS #i, the last recordedtemporary defect management information TDDS #i must further include apointer to this area for detection of the test location information. Inthis case, for the detection of the test location information, the lastrecorded temporary defect management information TDDS #i is detected toobtain the pointer to the area containing the test location information,and the area containing the test location information is detected usingthe pointer, thereby causing overhead.

FIG. 6B illustrates a data structure of temporary defect managementinformation TDDS #i recorded on a double record layer disc 100 such asthat shown in FIGS. 2C and 2D. Temporary defect management informationTDDS #i contains an identifier for the temporary defect managementinformation TDDS #i, and information regarding the recording position ofcorresponding temporary defect information TDFL #i. As previouslymentioned with reference to FIGS. 4A through 4D, the temporary defectinformation TDFL #i according to an embodiment of the present inventionis repeatedly recorded several times. Thus, the information regardingthe recording position of the temporary defect information TDFL #icontains pointers to the recording positions of respective temporarydefect information TDFL #i. In particular, the temporary defectmanagement information TDDS #i shown in FIG. 5B includes P pointers,each pointer to each of temporary defect information TDFL #i that isrepeatedly recorded P times.

Also, the temporary defect management information TDDS #i recorded on adouble record layer disc 100 describes the address of user data that islast recorded in a user data area of a first record layer L0, theaddress of replacement that is last recorded in a spare area of thefirst record layer L0, the address of user data that is last recorded ina user data area of a second record layer L1, and the address ofreplacement that is last recorded in a spare area of the second recordlayer L1. Accordingly, a user can easily utilize the disc 100 just byreferring to the last recorded user data and replacement.

Similarly to the single record layer disc 100, the temporary defectmanagement information TDDS #i further includes test locationinformation #i and write protect information #i. Accordingly, even if adisc drive does not access the drive & disc information area or the discdefect management is not performed, it is possible to directly access atestable area without detecting the testable area while scanning thetest area where recording conditions are measured. Also, it is possibleto avoid recording in an undesired area.

FIG. 7 illustrates a data structure of temporary defect information TDFL#i. Referring to FIG. 7, temporary defect information TDFL #i containsan identifier for temporary detect information TDFL #i, and informationregarding defects #1, #2, . . . , #k. The information regarding defects#1, #2, . . . , #k is state information indicating the positions ofdefects and replacements, and whether a defective area includes a singledefect block or continuous defect blocks.

FIGS. 8A and 8B illustrate data structures of a drive & disc informationarea according to embodiments of the present invention. Referring toFIG. 8A, write protect information #i, a pointer to the location oftemporary defect information TDFL #i, and a pointer to the location oftemporary defect management information TDDS #i are recorded inrecording operation units in the drive & disc information area, when thetemporary defect information TDFL #i and the temporary defect managementinformation TDDS #i are separately recorded in a TDMA as shown in FIG.4A or 4B. Referring to FIG. 8B, write protect information #i and apointer to the location of temporary management information area TDMA #iare recorded in recording operation units in the drive & discinformation area, when the temporary defect information TDFL #i andtemporary defect management information TDDS #i are recorded to beincluded in the temporary management information area TDMA #i in theTDMA as shown in FIG. 4C or 4D.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, the write protectinformation (which is recorded in the drive & disc information area andthe temporary defect management information TDDS #i) does not allowadditional data to be recorded on the disc 100. The write protectinformation may include flag information that indicates whether writeprotection is enabled or disabled on the entire disc 100, andinformation that indicates recordable areas even if write protection isenabled. For instance, a first bit of the write protect information isset as the flag information that indicates whether write protection isenabled or disabled, and each of the other bits is set to indicatewhether at least one predetermined area is recordable or not. If thewrite protection is enabled, a second bit of the write protectinformation may indicate whether the drive & disc information area isrecordable or not. Otherwise, the second bit may indicate whether thedrive & disc information area is recordable or not, and a third bit mayindicate whether a DMA is recordable or not. The third and fourth bitsmay indicate whether the DMA and a spare area are recordable or not.

When the write protect information is recorded, the following areas canbe recordable according to aspects of the invention.

In one area, data recording is allowed in the drive & disc informationarea, even if the write protect information is recorded on the disc 100and additional data cannot be further recorded. In other words, thedrive & disc information area is not affected by the write protectinformation recorded to enable write protection. Accordingly, it ispossible to change the write protect information.

In another area, even if the write protect information is recorded toenable write protection, a part of the drive & disc information areaallocated for the write protect information is not affected by the writeprotection. In other words, data recording is allowed in the part of thedrive & disc information area Thus, the write protect information can bechanged.

In a further area, even if the write protect information is recorded toenable write protection, a temporary defect management area (TDMA), thedrive & disc information area, and a spare area are not affected by thewrite protection (i.e., data recording is allowed in these areas). Thus,the write protect information can be changed. Further, disc defectmanagement can be performed even after recording of the write protectinformation.

If a rate of error correction in a data block of a user data area islower than a predetermined reference value when reproducing data storedin the user data area, disc defect management can be performed such thatthe data block is regarded as an area where the probability of erroroccurrence is higher, data stored in the data block is rewritten to thespare area before reproduction of the data, and the data block isdetermined to be a defective area.

If the disc 100 includes more than one spare area, at least one area ofthe spare areas is determined to be a recordable area according to anaspect of the invention.

Areas in which data recording is allowed even if the write protectinformation is recorded, are not limited to the above description. Thatis, the number and type of the areas can be adjusted if necessary.

FIG. 9 is a reference diagram illustrating in detail recording of datain a user data area A and a spare area B, according to an embodiment ofthe present invention. Data can be processed in units of sectors orclusters. A sector denotes a minimum unit of data that can be managed ina file system of a computer or in an application. A cluster denotes aminimum unit of data that can be physically recorded on a disc at once.In general, one or more sectors constitute a cluster.

There are two types of sectors: a physical sector and a logical sector.The physical sector is an area on a disc where a sector of data is to berecorded. An address for detecting the physical sector is called aphysical sector number (PSN). The logical sector is a unit in which datacan be managed in a file system or an application. An address fordetecting the logical sector is called a logical sector number (LSN). Adisc recording/reading apparatus detects the recording position of dataon a disc using the PSN. In a computer or a data application, the entiredata is managed in units of the LSNs and the position of data isdetected using an LSN. The relationship between the LSN and the PSN ischanged by a controller of the recording/reading apparatus, based onwhether the disc contains a defect and an initial position of recordingdata.

Referring to FIG. 9, A denotes a user data area and B denotes a sparearea in which PSNs are sequentially allocated to a plurality of sectors(not shown). In general, each LSN corresponds to at least one PSN.However, since LSNs are allocated to non-defective areas, includingreplacements recorded in the spare area, the correspondence between thePSNs and the LSNs is not maintained when the disc 100 has a defectivearea. This is true even if the size of the physical sector is the sameas that of the logical sector.

In the user data area A, user data is recorded either in a continuousrecording mode or a random recording mode. In the continuous recordingmode, the user data is recorded sequentially and continuously. In therandom recording mode, user data is randomly recorded. In the data areaA, sections 1001 through 1007 denote predetermined units of data inwhich the verify-after-write method is performed. A recording and/orreproducing apparatus records user data in section 1001, returns to thestart of section 1001, and checks if the user data is appropriatelyrecorded or a defect exists in section 1001. If a defect is detected ina portion of section 1001, the portion is designated as defect #1. Theuser data recorded in defect #1 is also recorded on a portion of thespare area B. Here, the portion of the spare area B in which datarecorded in defect #1 is rewritten is called replacement #1. Next, therecording and/or reproducing apparatus records user data in section1002, returns to the start of section 1002, and checks whether the datais properly recorded or a defect exists in section 1002. If a defect isdetected in a portion of section 1002, the portion is designated asdefect #2. Likewise, replacement #2 corresponding to defect #2 is formedin the spare area B. Further, defect #3 and replacement #3 aredesignated in section 1003 of the user data area A and the spare area B,respectively. In section 1004, a defect does not occur and a defectivearea is not designated.

The recording and/or reproducing apparatus records information regardingdefect #1, #2, and #3 occurring in sections 1001 through 1004 astemporary defect information TDFL #0 in the TDMA, when recordingoperation #0 is expected to end, after the recording and verifying ofdata to section 1004 (i.e., when a user presses the eject button of arecording and/or reproducing apparatus or recording of user dataallocated in a recording operation is complete). Also, managementinformation for managing temporary defect information TDFL #0 isrecorded as temporary defect management information TDDS #0 in the TDMA.

When recording operation #1 starts, data is recorded in sections 1005through 1007, and defects #4 and #5 and replacements #4 and #5 areformed in the user data area A and the spare area B, respectively, asexplained in sections 1001 through 1004. Defects #1, #2, #3, and #4occur in the single blocks, whereas defect #5 occurs in continuousdefect blocks. Replacement #5, which is replacement for defect #5, isrecorded in continuous replacement blocks. Here, a block refers to aphysical or logical record unit, a range of a unit block being notlimited. If the second recording operation is expected to end, therecording and/or reproducing apparatus records information regardingdefects #4 and #5 as temporary defect information TDFL #1, and recordsthe information contained in the defect information DFL #1 once again.Thereafter, management information for managing temporary defectinformation TDFL #1 is recorded as temporary defect managementinformation #1 in the TDMA.

For disc finalization, last recorded temporary defect information andtemporary defect management information are recorded as defectinformation and defect management information in a defect managementarea (DMA), respectively. Also, information regarding the recordingpositions of the last recorded temporary defect information andtemporary defect management information, and the above write protectinformation are further recorded in the TDMA.

FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating an effective use of a user data areaaccording to an aspect of the present invention. FIG. 10 reveals that anavailable portion of a user data area can easily be detected with theaddress of user data that is lastly recorded in the user data area andthe address of replacement that is lastly recorded in the spare area. Inparticular, the available portion can be more easily detected when theuser data is recorded from the inner part/outer part of the user dataarea to its outer part/inner part and data, which is a replacement for adefect, is recorded from the outer part/inner part of the spare area toits inner part/outer part, respectively. In other words, the user dataand the data for replacement are preferably recorded in oppositerecording directions.

When the physical addresses of the user data are increased from theinner part of the record layer L0 to the outer part and increased fromthe outer part of the record layer L1 to the inner part, the physicaladdress of the data which is lastly recorded in the user data areas ofrecord layers L0 and L1 has the largest number. Also, the last recordedreplacement has the physical address with the smallest number, whenphysical addresses of replacements are reduced from the outer part tothe inner part in a spare area of the record layer L0 and increased fromthe inner part to the outer part in a spare area of the record layer L1.Accordingly, if the addresses of the last recorded data and replacementareas are included in the temporary defect management information TDDS#i, as shown in FIGS. 6A and 6B it is possible to detect the positionsof data and replacement that are to be newly recorded, withoutcompletely reading temporary defect information TDFL #i and estimatingthe positions of the defect and replacement. Further, available portionsof the user data area and the spare area are located continuously,thereby enabling effective use of the user area. For this reason,additional data can be recorded or changed even after recording writeprotect information during disc finalization, and disc defect managementcan be more effectively performed.

FIGS. 11A and 11B illustrate data structures of temporary defectinformation TDFL #0 and TDFL#1. Referring to FIGS. 11A and 11B,temporary defect information TDFL#0 contains information regardingdefects #1, #2, and #3. The information regarding defect #1 indicatesthe position of an area in which defect #1 exists and the position of anarea in which replacement #1 is recorded. The information regardingdefect #1 may further include information indicating whether defect #1occurs in continuous defect blocks or a single defect block according toaspects of the invention. Likewise, the information regarding defect #2indicates whether defect #2 occurs in continuous defect blocks or asingle defect block, the position of an area in which defect #2 exists,and the position of an area in which replacement #2 is recorded. Theinformation regarding defect #3 indicates whether defect #3 occurs incontinuous defect blocks or a single defect block, the position of anarea in which defect #3 exists, and the position of an area in whichreplacement #3 is recorded.

In the shown embodiment, the temporary defect information TDFL#1 furthercontains information regarding defects #4 and #5 in addition to theinformation contained in temporary defect information TDFL #0. Morespecifically, the temporary defect information TDFL #1 includes theinformation regarding defect #1, the information regarding defect #2,the information regarding defect #3, the information regarding defect#4, and the information regarding defect #5. However, this cumulativerecording is not required in all aspects of the invention.

FIG. 12 illustrates a data structure of information regarding defect #i.Referring to FIG. 12, information regarding defect #i includes stateinformation indicating whether defect #i occurs in continuous defectblocks or a single defect block, a pointer to defect #i, and a pointerto replacement #i. When the defect #i is determined to occur in thecontinuous defect blocks, the state information further representswhether pointer to defect #i points to the start or end of thecontinuous defect blocks and whether pointer for the replacement #ipoints out the start or end of a replacement block that replaces thedefect #i. When the state information indicates the pointer for defect#i as the start of the continuous defect blocks and the pointer forreplacement #i as the start of the replacement block, the pointer fordefect #i represents a starting physical sector number of the continuousdefect blocks and the pointer for replacement #i represent a startingphysical sector number of replacement #i. In contrast, when the stateinformation indicates the pointer for defect #i as the end of thecontinuous defect blocks and the pointer for replacement #i as the endof the replacement block, the pointer for defect #i represents an endingphysical sector number of the continuous defect blocks and the pointerfor replacement #i represent an ending physical sector number ofreplacement #i. The definition of continuous defect blocks using stateinformation enables effectively recording of information and saves aspace of recording, even if information regarding defects is notrecorded in units of blocks.

The pointer for defect #i specifies a starting and/or ending point(s) ofthe defect #i. The pointer for defect #i may include the starting PSN ofdefect #1 according to an aspect of the invention. The pointer forreplacement #i specifies starting and/or ending points of replacement#i. The pointer for replacement #i may also include the starting PSN ofthe replacement #i.

Hereinafter, a disc defect management method according to an embodimentof the present invention will be described with reference to theflowchart shown in FIGS. 13A and 13B Referring to FIGS. 13A and 13B, arecording and/or reproducing apparatus such as that shown in FIG. 1records defect information regarding data, which is recorded accordingto a first recording operation, as first temporary defect information ina TDMA of the disc 100 (operation 1301). This process serves to managethe disc defects. The controller 1 of the recording and/or reproducingapparatus controls the recording/reading unit 2 to record managementinformation for managing the first temporary defect information as firsttemporary defect management information in the TDMA (operation 1302). Asdescribed above, the first temporary defect management informationincludes drive & disc information (i.e., test location information orwrite protect information) according to an aspect of the invention.Next, information regarding the locations of the first temporary defectinformation and the first temporary defect management information isrecorded in the drive & disc information area (operation 1303). Then,the write protect information is further recorded in the drive & discinformation area (operation 1304).

Next, it is checked whether disc finalization is required (operation1305). If it is determined in operation 1305 that disc finalization isnot required, operations 1301 through 1304 are repeated while increasingindexes i given to a recording operation, temporary defect information,and temporary defect management information by 1 (operation 1306).However, if it is determined in operation 1305 that disc finalization isrequired, the last recorded temporary defect management information andtemporary defect information are recorded in the DMA (operation 1307).That is, the last recorded temporary defect management information andtemporary defect information are recorded as final defect managementinformation and defect information in the DMA, respectively. The finaldefect information and defect management information may be repeatedlyrecorded to increase the reliability of data detection.

Further, while not required in all aspects of the invention, theverify-after-write method may be performed on the final defectmanagement information and defect information. If a defect is detectedfrom the final defect management information, an area of the disc 100having the defect and the following area containing data may be regardedas being unavailable (i.e., they are designated as a defective area),and the final temporary defect management information and temporarydefect information are again recorded after the defective area.Alternatively, the write protect information, which is recorded in thedrive & disc information area or included in lastly recorded temporarydefect management information TDDS#i, may further be recorded in the DMAaccording to another aspect of the invention.

FIGS. 14A and 14B show a flowchart illustrating a disc defect managementmethod according to another embodiment of the present invention.Referring to FIGS. 14A and 14B, a recording and/or reproducing apparatussuch as that shown in FIG. 1 records user data in a data area of a discin units of data to facilitate the verify-after-write method (operation1401). The data recorded in operation 1201 is verified to detect an areaof the disc 100 having a defect (operation 1402). Controller 2 of FIG. 1designates the area having the defect as a defective area, controls therecording/reading unit 1 to rewrite data recorded in the defective areato a spare area so as to create a replacement area the controller 2further controls the recording/reading unit 1 to create stateinformation specifying whether the defective area includes a singledefect block or continuous defect blocks, and pointer information thatpoints the positions of the defective area and the replacement area(operation 1403). The state information and the pointer information arestored as first temporary defect information in memory (operation 1404).It is checked whether the first recording operation is expected to end(operation 1405).

If it is determined in operation 1405 that the first recording operationis not expected to end, operations 1401 through 1404 are repeated. If itis determined in operation 1405 that the first recording operation islikely to end (i.e., when the recording of the user data is complete byuser input or according to the first recording operation), the storedtemporary defect information is read and repeatedly recorded as firsttemporary defect information TDFL #0 in the TDMA several times(operation 1406). Next, management information for managing the firsttemporary defect information TDFL #0 is recorded as first temporarydefect management information TDDS #0 in the TDMA (operation 1407). Thefirst temporary defect management information TDDS #0 further includestest location information and write protect information. Thereafter, apointer to the location of the first temporary defect information TDFL#0, a pointer to the location of the first temporary defect managementinformation TDDS #0, and the write protect information are recorded inthe drive & disc information area of the disc 100 (operations 1408 and1409).

Alternatively, a pointer for temporary management information TDMA #i,other than the temporary defect information TDFL #i and the temporarydefect management information TDDS #i, may be recorded in operation1408.

Next, it is checked whether the data needs to be finalized (operation1410). If it is determined in operation 1410 that the finalizing of thedisc 100 is not required, operations 1401 through 1409 are repeated.Whenever operations 1401 through 1409 are repeated, indexes i given toeach recording operation, temporary defect information TDFL, andtemporary defect management information TDDS are increased by 1(operation 1411). If it is determined in operation 1410 that thefinalizing of the disc 100 is needed, a last recorded temporary defectinformation TDFL #i and a last recorded temporary defect managementinformation TDDS #i are recorded as final defect information DFL and thefinal defect management information DDS in the DMA (operation 1412). Thefinal defect information DFL and the final defect management informationDDS may be recorded several times to increase the reliability of datadetection. Similarly, the verify-after-write method may be performed onthe final recorded defect information and defect management information.If a defect is detected in this information, an area of the disc 100having the defect and the following area containing data may be regardedas being unavailable (i.e., the areas are collectively designated as adefective area), and the final temporary defect management informationand temporary defect information may be again recorded after thedefective area. Alternatively, the write protect information, which isstored in the drive & disc information area or included in lastlyrecorded temporary defect management information TDDS #i, may further berecorded in the DMA. While described as being increased by 1, it isunderstood that the index in the methods shown in FIGS. 13A through 14Bcould instead be based on other numbers.

The aforementioned defect management may be embodied as a computerprogram that can be run by a computer, which can be a general or specialpurpose computer. Thus, it is understood that the controller 2 can besuch a computer. Codes and code segments, which constitute the computerprogram, can be easily reasoned by a computer programmer in the art. Theprogram is stored in a computer readable medium readable by thecomputer. When the program is read and run by a computer, the defectmanagement is performed. Here, the computer-readable medium may be amagnetic recording medium, an optical recording medium, a carrier wave,firmware, or other recordable media.

During reproduction, the recording and/or reproducing apparatus utilizesthe defect information and the defect management information in thedefect management area and/or the temporary defect management area inorder to access the recorded user data. While described in terms of arecording and/or reproducing apparatus as shown in FIG. 1, it isunderstood that the apparatus can be an individual recording orreproducing apparatus or a recording and reproducing apparatus.

While described in terms of use with write-once disks, it is understoodthat the present invention can be used with other writeable discs,including re-writeable recording media.

As described above, an aspect of the present invention provides a discdefect management method suitable for use with write once discs.According to an aspect of the present invention, at least one temporarydefect information area is present in a lead-in area of a disc and/or alead-out area, so that information regarding a defect that exists in thedisc can be accumulatively recorded. Also, it is easy to finalize thedisc by reading only lastly recorded temporary defect information from atemporary defect information area and recording the read information ina defect management area, thereby enabling effective use of the DMA.Accordingly, user data can be recorded on discs (even on write oncediscs) while performing disc defect management, thereby allowing backupoperations to be performed without interruptions. Further, it ispossible to change write protect information or perform disc defectmanagement even after recording the write protect information in a disc.Also, even if a disc drive does not access a drive & disc informationarea and test location information or write protect information is notobtained, the temporary defect management information further includesthe test location information and the write protect information.Accordingly, it is possible to directly access a test area and preventdata from being recorded in an improper area. In addition, it ispossible to increase the reliability of a system by recording the testlocation information and the write protect information as temporarydefect management information even if a user does not desire to performdisc defect management.

While this invention has been particularly shown and described withreference to embodiments thereof, it will be understood by those skilledin the art that various changes in form and details may be made thereinwithout departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as definedby the accompanying claims and equivalents thereof.

1. A reproducing apparatus to reproduce data from a recording medium,the apparatus comprising: a reading unit to reproduce the data from therecording medium; and a controller to control the reading unit to;reproduce user data from a data area; and reproduce replacement datareplacing defective areas of the data area using recorded informationregarding a defect in a data area of the recording medium recorded astemporary defect information in a temporary defect management area ofthe recording medium, and recorded information for managing thetemporary defect information recorded as temporary defect managementinformation in the temporary defect management area; wherein thetemporary defect management information is recorded to comprise writeprotection information of the recording medium; and the temporary defectmanagement information comprises an address of a last recorded unit ofuser data in the data area.
 2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein thetemporary defect information comprises: stored information that pointsto the defective areas; and information that points to replacement areasfor the defective areas having the replacement data.
 3. The apparatus ofclaim 1, wherein the recording medium is a write-once medium.
 4. Theapparatus of claim 3, wherein the temporary defect informationcomprises: stored information that points to the defective areas; andinformation that points to replacement areas for the defective areashaving the replacement data.
 5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein thetemporary defect management information comprises a pointer pointing toan area in which the temporary defect information is recorded.